2004 Boston Red Sox

It’s Saturday, July 24, 2004.   Boston's Red Sox are 52 and 44, second in the AL East, 9 1/2 games behind the first-place Yankees.  The Sox are loaded with talent, but so far they've lacked a spark.   The night before, at Fenway Park, the Yankees won, 8 to 7.  It’s starting to look like 2004 will be another season without a championship.  The 86thth since 1918 when the Sox won their last World Series.  The 85th season since they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000.  When they fell under the Curse of the Bambino.

But wait.  Before the game there’s a band on the field:  The Dropkick Murphys.  The Dropkicks  cut loose with a punk Irish baseball song called "Tessie."  So what happens? A bench-clearing brawl, that's what.  And Bill Mueller's two-run walk-off home run gives the Sox an 11-10 win.

At the time nobody credits the turning point of the season -- and Red Sox history --  to "Tessie."  But in hindsight, all these years later, how could you not?